Bruce Not Getting Carried Away Ahead Of Bristol City

On the back of a good week and two wins over Norwich City and Wigan Athletic, Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce has said nobody can get carried away ahead of Bristol City this Friday.

With two good performances and eight goals scored, nobody can blame the fans for hoping we have now turned the corner after a poor start, but Bruce knows Bristol City will be another tough game for us and whilst he knows we go into the game with renewed confidence, he also knows we have to remain focused.

Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media for his pre game press conference, Bruce explained.

‘It`s a better week. That`s all it is. We can`t get too carried away. Wigan made a lot of changes the other night – so did we. It was good to win the cup tie, of course. And it was good to see a response against Norwich in particular. It was the manner of it too because we played very, very well. Now we have to address the away form – this horrible thing that has hung over us for years. We have to start performing on the road and live up to the expectation of what this club demands.’

Asked about the mood in the camp, Bruce admitted it was obviously more upbeat as that’s always the case with victories under your belt.

‘They are more upbeat. That obviously comes with a win. When you have difficult weeks, the one thing that can put it right is the players. The response from them has been good. They have had a good week. But that`s all it is. It`s shown that in football it can go from a crisis to euphoria all of a sudden. Let`s not get too carried away. Let`s see if we can get a good result at Bristol City.’

With Mitch Clark making his debut in midweek, Bruce went on to say about his performance.

‘I don`t mean this disrespectfully but he`s a little bit of a throwback. He`s tough. He`s quick. He can play in any sort of position. You ask him to do something and he does it. He`s got that fierce determination and that devilment, which is always good for a defender. I thought he had a very good debut considering I asked to play him out of position, which I was wary of. But I was assured by Kevin MacDonald that he would handle it. How right he was. Mitch was terrific.’

With more of a youthful feel this last two games with youngsters getting their opportunity to shine, Bruce praised the work of Kevin MacDonald for constantly having a supply line of youngsters over the years – even if we haven’t quite used them appropriately as a club.

‘I have said it many times but if you take a player from Aston Villa, they are usually made of good stuff and that`s due to the education they have had. Kevin is supposed to be old-fashioned – but there`s nothing wrong with it. He breeds them tough in a tough world, in the tough environment of football. For me, he`s been magnificent for this football club.’

With Keinan Davis missing out on Wigan, Bruce went on to say that the youngster just had to keep himself grounded as whilst he was fantastic against Norwich, his age means his performances will be up and down until he develops some consistency, so he shouldn’t be too high after a good day nor too low over a bad day.

‘I am convinced Keinan will go up and down because he`s only a boy at the end of the day. He`s set a remarkably high standard and now he has to stay there with it. He`s walking on air at the moment but he is a grounded kid.’

Unfortunately Davis does feature in the injury news section of his press conference.

‘Keinan Davis has had a niggling hamstring injury, which has hung over him all week really. He trained on Wednesday and was a little bit sore still. We will see how he is this morning. But I expect him to make Friday. Onomah will be fine. Jedinak is sick. He reported in sick this morning. We will see how he is. I doubt Friday will be right for him.’

With ongoing link to Robert Snodgrass, Bruce wouldn’t be overly draw but there is an interest at least.

‘He`s someone I know and someone I have bought before. We are aware he might be available so it`s something that is interesting us. We have had conversations but in all of these things now it`s not just a done deal just yet. There are still little bits of pieces to do. We`re hopeful that we can get something done.’

Turning attentions to Bristol City more directly, Bruce went on to say we simply had to address our away form this year.

‘We have got to address the away form. It`s hung over the club for years now. We have to sort it if we are to be successful in what we want to do. We have to try and find a way of winning away from away – or getting a result away from home – if we are to improve.’

Bouncing again, Bruce gave his thoughts on the League Cup tie with Middlesbrough.

‘All you can ask for is a home draw. It`s an ideal opportunity to still use the young ones and the ones who haven`t been playing. We will address that when we get to it.’